


Stronger than Blood

by aeruh



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Group Hugs, I did this in under two hours, I just wanted to write fluff, Please Don't Hate Me, and thinks the team needs more of them, lance curses once, the team needs more of them, the writer is weak for family tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 01:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13892940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeruh/pseuds/aeruh
Summary: Keith realizes he's had a family all along. He just didn't realize it.(An alternate title: Keith Never Knew He was Unofficially Adopted)





	Stronger than Blood

“When this is over, the first thing I’m going is going home to hug my mom,” Lance said, sighing as he slumped over the table.

“I’m taking Gunther for a walk,” Pidge said. “I remember I promised him I would when I came home for winter break, but then the whole space thing happened.”

“Gunther?” Hunk asked.

“The family dog.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying your fake last name was based on your _dog?_ ”

“What?” Pidge scowled. “No! _Gunderson,_ not _Gunther._ There’s a difference.”

“Barely,” Hunk muttered. 

Lance started to say something, but Pidge--eager to avoid further discussion of her fake name--turned the conversation to focus on Keith instead.

“What are you gonna do when we go home?”

Keith didn't say anything for a while, and settled for stabbing at his plate instead. 

“I don’t know,” he said eventually. 

It wasn’t something he thought about too often. Why bother? He didn’t have anyone waiting for him. He’d made a home for himself, alone in the desert. And if anyone even knew he was missing it would be even more surprising than the discovery of his Galra heritage. 

“What?” Hunk gaped. “You don’t even have, like, a fast-food place you want to go to? McDonald’s or something?” 

“No,” Keith snapped, feeling irritable. “I don’t.” 

“You have to have _some_ idea--”

“Well, I don’t!” Keith said then, interrupting him. “I don’t have anything back on Earth. I don’t have anyone waiting for me. I don’t have family. I’ve never had family. So what’s the point in thinking about that place?” 

“Oh come _on,_ ” Pidge complained. “Everyone in the universe has families! You said that to _me_ when I wanted to leave to find mine!”

“Yeah? Well, I was wrong, okay?” There was a strange feeling building up in Keith’s throat; like it was tightening, trying to swell up, and something hot pricked at the corners of his eyes. Keith forced it back down, to go away. 

Now wasn’t the time. And shouldn't he be over this by now, anyway? He’s lived with it long enough. But instead of scarring over, this wound just refused to heal. It stung more than it should have. 

Lance’s voice cut across the table suddenly, stopping Pidge before she could form a retort. “That’s a load of quiznaking bullshit.”

“Lance,” Shiro started, a warning in his tone, but the Blue Paladin barreled on. 

“Are you being serious right now? You’re going to say that to us, after everything we’ve all been through?” 

His words weren’t making any sense, and it paused Keith’s frustration and anger for just a moment. Confusion took their place. 

“What are you…”

Lance threw his fork down, and it splattered the food goo he’d been about to eat across the table. “Hunk already told you! _We’re family,_ remember? He called us brothers, back when all of this started. Is your memory really that bad?”

“I did say that,” Hunk chipped in helpfully. 

Of course Keith remembered. That was when Hunk swept Lance and him into a bone-crushing hug and Keith was so confused he didn’t know what to do with it. But he didn’t think Hunk really meant it. And he certainly never expected Lance to remember, either.

“We aren’t family, though,” Keith said. “We aren’t related. We’re just a team--”

“Blood doesn’t mean anything,” Lance said crossly. “I can’t believe you haven’t figured that out by now, Mullet.”

“That’s right!” Hunk added. “Back home we’ve unofficially adopted _lots_ of people into the Garrett family. It’s great.”

Coran twirled one end of his mustache. “Alteans do that, too,” he said. “There’s an old saying… how did it go?”

“ _Families built on love are stronger than ones built on blood,_ ” Allura said. She put her fork down much softer than Lance had with his own.

Shiro crossed his arms on the table. It seemed like the rest of the team had completely forgotten about dinner altogether. “What did you think Keith, that we were just a bunch of strangers working together? We share a mental bond with each other. That doesn’t happen to just anyone.”

“I-I know that. I just didn't think…” Keith frowned. Why did words have to be so _hard?_

“You never think,” Pidge muttered, and Lance nodded in agreement. 

“You can say you don’t have family all you like, but as far as _we’re_ all concerned, you’ve been our family for a long time,” he said. 

There it was again, that pressure in his throat, only Keith didn’t think he’d be able to push it back this time. He hated crying, probably even more than anything else. It left him feeling tired and mentally drained. Only this time it was different. Instead of crying because he was hurt, or angry, the tears that threatened to leak from his eyes were… something else. Keith didn't know what it was. 

He tried to wipe them away with one gloved hand without drawing more attention to himself. But that was impossible to do when everyone was already looking at him. 

“Aww, man,” Hunk said. “Don’t cry! I’ll cry if you cry, and then Lance will cry and Coran will probably cry too and--”

“I’m not crying,” Keith tried to snap, but his voice broke halfway through and his sniffling wasn’t convincing at all.

It went completely against Keith’s nature to show such vulnerability. Crying happened only in dark rooms, alone with muffled sobs so no one else could hear him. Because he couldn't afford to show weakness, and everyone knew that tears were weak. 

But these people watching Keith called him _family,_ had adopted him without him even knowing. They spent enough time together to see how difficult it was to be around him and they wanted him anyway. 

So Keith caved in and cried. It wasn’t full-on sobbing, just quiet tears hidden behind his hand as he looked down, sitting there for all to see at the table. But it was crying nonetheless, and for the first time in as long as he could remember, Keith didn’t feel like he had to run away and hide.

Distantly, he could hear the sound of a chair scraping against the floor as someone stood. There were footsteps approaching, and then there was the feeling of arms being wrapped around his shoulders. Keith could smell spices from the kitchen and faint traces of some kind of mechanical oil from working on the Lions. 

Hunk. 

“See? I told you I was gonna cry,” Hunk said tearfully, keeping his arms wrapped around Keith stubbornly as something wet leaked onto his shirt. Keith couldn't actually see him, but he got the idea. 

Keith still refused to look up, but he could hear the sound of five other chairs being pushed back, and then felt five other people trying desperately to get their arms around him, which wasn’t very easy if the sounds of Pidge muttering, “Lance, get out of the way!” and a response of “I’m _trying,_ ” were anything to go off of. 

But they figured it out eventually, one way or another. Keith still refused to look up to meet any of their eyes, but he could feel their weight on him like a pile of comforting blankets. And there was a tiny part of him that had been hidden away for years that thought maybe, just maybe, this was something he could get used to. 

Having a family did seem nice, even if it was a little different than most and spent a lot of time fighting an intergalactic war in space.

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS AHEAD IN THE NOTES:
> 
> I wrote this because even though I was SO EXCITED about Keith's mom, I want the team to be a family. Family means the world to me and my family has "unofficially adopted" so many people. I want them to do that too.


End file.
